Bad ideas that worked- Page 2

[DickonDefysGravity]

Posted: 6/11/08 at 7:08pm

URINETOWN
LEGALLY BLONDE
JANE EYRE

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 6/11/08 at 7:13pm

Spring Awakening: "Ooh, let's musicalize a hundred-year-old play about sex and suicide!" Eight Tonys later...

[emo_geek]

Posted: 6/11/08 at 9:37pm

I went to a event with Stephen Schwartz a month or so ago and he was talking about this very subject. He (and I agreed with him) said that at the time Little Shop of Horrors and Bat Boy were considered such stupid ideas...and turned out to be charming in each of its own way.

[kylestefanie]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 12:01pm

Avenue Q
When I heard about it I thought it sounded really stupid but after hearing the music and seeing the show I love it!

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 12:18pm

Who said JERSEY BOYS?

That had hit written all over it, the songs were already well known, rip off the set of DREAMGIRLS, write a few lines of dialouge, hire unknowns who can be easily replaced, pay them very little and every person in New Jersey will come and see it.

I wish I had thought of it.
Updated On: 6/12/08 at 12:18 PM

[iluvny04]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 1:10pm

Mamma Mia!, love the show but for the longest time the idea of a jukebox musical has been and still is flawed to a degree. This and Jersey Boys are so far the jukebox musicals that could. Mamma Mia more since it is more of a global sensation than Jersey Boys.

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 1:12pm

MY FAIR LADY.

As far as I've heard, most people believed that PYGMALION could never be successfully musicalized and thought Lerner and Lowe were crazy for putting it out there. And, look what happened to that.

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 1:14pm

That had hit written all over it, the songs were already well known, rip off the set of DREAMGIRLS, write a few lines of dialouge, hire unknowns who can be easily replaced, pay them very little and every person in New Jersey will come and see it.

What a lovely generalization.

So glad we have people like you here.

[Enjolras77]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 1:17pm

I have to agree with Stephen Schwartz and go with "Bat Boy". When I first saw the premise for this show I thought it sounded idiotic -- however, I quickly fell in love with the show and its score.

[25th Annual Speller]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 1:21pm

Lestat.


Wait.


Nevermind.

[iluvny04]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 1:21pm

Sunday In The Park With George, a musical based George Seurat's painting probably sounded like a quirky idea at the time, but now its one of Sondheim's greatest hits. Also Assassins, a musical about would be Assassins. Probably the only successful sondheim revivals at Studio 54.

[Okayfine]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 3:54pm

I don't agree that Grey Gardens worked. I think it was a bad idea that turned into a bad show.

Oklahoma sounds pretty silly on paper & I hear it works, although I have never liked it.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 4:28pm

Most of the musicals mentioned here, post A Chorus Line, were either workshopped, done at a regional or done off-Broadway before coming into town. While money was being spent, it was not the big money involved in a full production. At any point the plug could have been pulled with limited financial consequences.

Urinetown is an example of a show that ought not to have worked although every pre-Broadway incarnation did work and the green light kept happening to everyone's favor. However it wasn't that big of a surprise by the time it opened at the Henry Miller's that it was a good show. The producers were savvy enough to have enough of a money cushion until it found its audience.

Before workshops often times the creators of a show did not know what they had until the show was on its feet in front of a paying audience after the budgeted money had been expended. We have all seen shows that probably read well and looked good in a studio, but fell flat in production.

No, No Nanette, The Wiz, 1776, Bye, Bye, Birdie, Half a Sixpence, Purlie, among others, are shows that got decent runs although they didn't look like hits when they went into rehearsal. Actually the last two didn't pay off until they went on tour after the Broadway runs.

If a show makes it through the workshop/regional vetting process and comes into NY in a multi-million dollar production and lays an egg, one has to ask if anyone had their eyes and ears open and if anyone knew what was and was not working.

[oohshizz146]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 6:15pm

Oh! Bat Boy. Love it now, but when I first heard about it...

Possibly Spelling Bee? I mean, I really love it, but
"Lets have a musical version of a Spelling Bee"? I can understand objections from people who don't know anything about it.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 6:41pm

Next to Normal was a pretty bad idea. I didn't really like it when I saw it, I guess because it comes on so strong, but I'm warming up to it now. It's just an acquired taste.

[into_the_woods2]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 7:18pm

this is going to sound weird but i don't think any musical is a bad idea, because i think the creators can do so much with an idea and write such beautiful music...i don't doubt any ideas for musicals (unless they have been done zillions of times, like "lets do this version of romeo and juliet!")

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 7:32pm

This is precisely why one shouldnt crap on any idea. You never know if it will end up working. Even some ofvthe bad ideas that ended up being bad shows could have been good under different circumstances. You have to think outside the box.

[Lynnespock2]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 9:27pm

When I heard the title of the show, Urinetown, I didn't want to see it, but I was treated to an evening at the theater and that was the show. I LOVED IT!!

[Drunk Chita Rivera]

Posted: 6/12/08 at 10:38pm

Legally Blonde and when it opens I think Shrek will be good.